


Don't Look...

by TsingaDark



Series: Spooky Week [4]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF), Slender: The Eight Pages
Genre: Alternate Universe - Video Game World, Established Relationship, Fear, Injury, M/M, References to Monty Python, Spooky Week, creepy drawings, lots of dialogue (srsly so much dialogue), references to the youtube vid of them playing slender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-08-27 09:21:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8396200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TsingaDark/pseuds/TsingaDark
Summary: After playing Slender: The Eight Pages for Spooky Week, Dan goes to bed as per usual but instead of waking up in his own bed, he wakes up in the middle of a forest.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Part 4 of Spooky Week is a chaptered fic!! I hope you enjoy reading it just as much as I did writing it.
> 
> Please be aware that this fic is horror!! I wouldn't exactly classify my writing as particularly scary but if you were scared by the Slender video by Dan and Phil and/or didn't even watch that, maybe consider not reading this. 
> 
> (I watched D&P's Slender video so many times for this...)

“We should stop playing these at night,” Dan said as he put the finishing touches on the video they’d filmed earlier for spooky week.

Phil was sitting next to him, his hands absentmindedly playing with the Dalek mask on his lap. He’d been downstairs while Dan had started editing but had joined Dan after a while, bringing him Ribena and a snack.  

“Maybe you should edit during the day,” Phil suggested and grinned at Dan when he grunted.

“Maybe _you_ should edit instead,” Dan retorted, raising an eyebrow and turning to look at Phil.

“I could,” Phil shrugged. He meant it, but at the same time he knew that Dan actually liked editing quite a lot, often volunteering to work on their joined videos.

“Pfft.” Dan turned to look back at the computer again, clicking on a few clips to adjust the sound level. After a few seconds he plucked his headphones off his head and pressed them into Phil’s hands - a sign for him to watch the video for any things Dan might’ve missed.

“I’m gonna start dinner,” Dan said and exited the tiny office, leaving Phil alone. He watched the video, changed a few things and clicked on the rendering button. Dan had done a good job, like always, so there wasn’t much for Phil to do.

He soon joined Dan in the kitchen, helping him with the stir-fry, and an hour or two later they were both lounging on the sofa, each on their respective laptops. As always, Phil was the first one to go to bed, while Dan had taken on the browsing position, staying up a lot longer than Phil. When he eventually went to bed as well, sleep came quickly.

 

*

 

Dan’s back hurt a hell of a lot. He tried to roll onto his side but instead of the comfortable mattress beneath him, something hard poked into his side and he quickly sat up, a sharp pain suddenly shooting through his head.

He cursed loudly and rubbed his head where he’d obviously banged it on something. He blinked, trying to get his eyes to adjust to see how he’d managed to hurt himself while lying horizontally on his bed. There was a light coming from somewhere in front of him but his sight became blurry and he had to close his eyes again, his head throbbing. After a few minutes, the pain subsided slightly, and he risked squinting at his surroundings. At first, he couldn’t make out anything but then he realised that the light he’d seen earlier was not pointing towards him but instead away from him. Everything else was plunged into darkness.

His hands swept across a leathery material at his sides and he frowned. Albeit a bit hazy, he could remember having gone to bed. Had he sleep walked again?

Slowly, he was able to open his eyes further and his breath caught as he realised where he was. He froze, unable to move even a tiny bit.

_What the fuck._

Why the fuck was he in a fucking car? He didn’t even _own_ a car nor did he know someone living close enough that did.

Had he broken into a car while sleepwalking? Oh God, this was a fucking nightmare!

Finally, Dan broke out of his motionlessness and brought his hands up to the steering wheel. The material felt cold under his fingers and Dan could see that he was shaking, probably from the shock as well as the coldness that was slowly seeping through his clothes.

He looked down at himself and freaked out for the second time upon noticing that he wasn’t wearing his pyjamas. How the hell was he properly clothed?

Oh God, something had obviously happened but he couldn’t for the life of him remember. The last thing he was able to recall was how he’d got into bed and cast a last look at his phone, showing him that it was past two am.

Had him hitting his head resulted in forgetting the last few minutes? Or hours? It could’ve been God knows how long since he’d gone to bed.

Fuck, how was he supposed to find home? He’d no idea where he was! All around the car there were trees everywhere, not giving him much of a clue at all regarding his whereabouts.

Or was he lucid dreaming again? He hadn’t had a lucid dream since the age of nine but surely back then those dreams had never felt as realistic as this one did?

Suddenly, there was a loud bang right next to him and Dan screamed loudly, trying to get away from the window, getting his legs trapped between the steering wheel and the seat. He frantically grabbed the door handle to prevent it from being opened. He couldn’t see a damn thing out of the window as it was slowly fogging up from his breathing.

“Dan!” he heard someone yell and at first he thought he’d imagined it but then his name was called again, accompanied by loud banging on the door.

Still holding onto the door handle with on hand, he rubbed at the window, a slightly blurry Phil becoming visible on the other side.

Dan hastily shoved open the door, almost hitting Phil with it.

“Phil,” he yelled, stumbling into his arms. Phil immediately squeezed him tightly.

“Fuck, Phil,” Dan mumbled into Phil’s neck. “What the fuck?”

“I don’t know,” Phil replied. He sounded shaky and Dan drew back to look at him. If possible, he was even paler than normal and there was a scared expression on his face.

At least, that meant that this wasn’t a lucid dream. Except if Dan’s consciousness had dreamt up a very realistic Phil. This all felt too real to be a dream though. 

“What the fuck happened?” Dan demanded to know.

“I don’t know,” Phil said again. “I...,” he looked behind Dan but almost as quickly his gaze was back on Dan, “I went to bed and… then I woke up on the ground, lying on a pile of leaves.”

“You- _what_?”

Okay, he’d changed his mind. This had to be some sort of dream, that was the only explanation for this that made any sense. Phil had never sleepwalked in his life, and even if he’d had, it was basically impossible for both of them to have sleepwalked to the same forest in the goddamn middle of nowhere.

“Yeah, I…,” Phil trailed off, looking around again as if he was searching for something.

“Would you stop that!” Dan yelled and hit Phil on his upper arm. “You’re scaring me.”

“Sorry,” Phil said, biting his lip. “I just…”

“What? You _what_?” Dan asked frantically, resisting the urge to turn around to see if there was anything behind him.

“I don’t have a good feeling.”

“Well, considering we’ve woken up in the goddamn middle of nowhere, that doesn’t really surprise me!” Dan said, his voice getting high. He knew he was getting hysterical but he couldn’t stop himself from freaking out. Nothing like this had ever happened to him. And even if this was an extremely detailed lucid dream, that fact didn’t make it any less scary.

“Dan,” Phil said, trying to sound calm but his voice was betraying him, showing that he was almost as scared as Dan was.

“It’s okay. We’ll find out where we are and then we’ll go home,” Phil continued. “It’s going to be okay.” He laid special emphasis on the last word, as if that would make Dan feel better.

“ _How_?” Dan asked. “How are we going to find out where we are? I don’t have my phone, I don’t have _anything_ of use on me. I don’t-”

Suddenly, Phil embraced him, cutting of his babbling. “It’s going to be okay,” he said again and this time he sounded much surer. He didn’t let go of Dan for another few minutes and when he did, Dan felt much calmer. Phil smiled at him and reached for his hand, squeezing it reassuringly.

“Let’s start with the car, alright?” he said, taking control of the situation. Dan was glad that he did. Normally, he was a massive control freak but he’d never been in a situation like this and had no idea where to even start.

He nodded but stayed practically glued to Phil’s side as he leant down and crawled onto the front seat, throwing a glance at the back seat. He then opened the glove compartment, rummaging around in it and emerging with something in his hand.

“What’s that?” Dan asked before Phil was properly out of the car.

“Flashlight,” Phil grunted, trying to manoeuvre backwards without falling onto the ground. Dan steadied him and Phil turned around as soon as he’d made it out.

“Does it work?” Dan immediately asked.

“Let’s see,” Phil said, always the patient one. He seemed to have forgotten the precarious situation they were in, but Dan could feel the darkness closing in on him. The headlights from the car weren’t providing nearly enough light for Dan to feel comfortable.

With a triumphant sound, Phil managed to turn on the flashlight, its beam cutting a way through the trees.

“Thank God,” Dan sighed.

“We should take a look at the boot as well,” Phil said, already turning towards the rear end of the car.

“Um, do you really think that’s a good idea?” Dan squeaked, hurrying after Phil. Just because they had light now didn’t mean that Dan wasn’t still scared.

“Why not?” Phil asked, shortly looking back at Dan.

“There could be anything in there,” Dan pointed out, coming to a stop behind Phil. He didn’t like having his back exposed at all, but he didn’t want to have his back to the boot either when Phil opened it. Like he’d said, there could be literally _anything_ in there.

“Right,” Phil said, and Dan knew that he wasn’t really listening, instead focusing on the task at hand. It was rather anticlimactic when the boot wouldn’t open, no matter how much Phil pulled on it.

“Well, I guess that settles it.”

Dan turned around and pressed his back to the side of the car. He wrapped his arms around himself to keep himself at least a little bit warm. The coldness of the night was slowly making him start to shiver.

“It’s going to be alright,” Phil repeated again and Dan looked up from where he’d been staring at his shoes. Phil was smiling at him, albeit it looking a bit forced for Dan’s sake but Dan would take what he could get. He took a deep breath and nodded.

“I know. I just-” he stopped himself when he had an idea.

“The car!” he exclaimed, swivelling around to the driver’s side.

“What about the car?” Phil asked, confusion evident in his voice.

“We can just take the car and drive out of here,” Dan said as he crawled back onto the seat.

“We don’t have the key.”

Dan pointedly looked back at Phil. “I _know_. What do you think I’m doing right now?”

“Oh,” Phil just said, briefly glancing behind himself.

Dan flipped down the sun visors but no keys fell out of them, so he motioned for the flashlight which Phil reluctantly handed over. Dan had to bend over awkwardly to be able to look underneath the seats but there was nothing there either.

He scrambled out of the tiny car and almost climbed straight back into it. Somehow, he felt safer in the car than out in the open.

Phil reached for the flashlight but Dan stubbornly held onto it. He would not give up the only thing that made him feel protected outside. Well, the only thing apart from Phil.

“We wouldn’t be able to drive out of here anyway,” Phil suddenly said, startling Dan. He smiled apologetically and grabbed Dan’s hand, squeezing it reassuringly.

“Why?”

“There’s trees everywhere. We’d get stuck between them,” Phil said while looking around.

“You’re right,” Dan answered, mirroring Phil. He couldn’t see much past the first two rows of trees except all-pervasive darkness. Knowing that there could be anything lurking in the dark made Dan feel incredibly uneasy and he quickly moved closer to Phil.

“What should we do then?” he asked, hoping that Phil would have an answer to all of this.

Phil fixed him with an all too familiar expression on his face and Dan wished he hadn’t asked at all. “We should probably pick a direction and just start walking. We’re bound to arrive _somewhere_ sometime.”

“No,” Dan retorted immediately. “That sounds too much like _Blair Witch Project_ and I’d rather not end as a few bloody bits in the woods, thanks.”

“Well, what do you suggest then?” Phil asked, furrowing his brows.

“We stay here until the sun goes up,” Dan replied. “Then we can go and see where we end up.”

“That sounds a lot like _Blair Witch_ , too,” Phil whined, but Dan knew he agreed with his idea because he let go of Dan’s hand and instead slipped his arm around Dan’s waist, pulling him into a half-embrace. They stayed like that for some time, taking comfort in each other, but Dan was progressively getting colder and had been able to feel Phil starting to shiver a while ago.

“We should probably go sit in the car,” Dan suggested after a few more minutes.

Phil nodded and pulled away from Dan, making him about a hundred times colder where Phil had been pressed up against him. Phil walked around the front of the car, the front lights illuminating him shortly.

Dan was just about to sit down in the front seat when he saw Phil stop abruptly out of the corner of his eye. He swivelled around, facing Phil with the car between them, only to take in the horrified expression on Phil’s face.

“Phil?” he asked, his voice breaking at the last syllable. An uneasy feeling spread in Dan’s stomach and the shivers running through his body weren’t only due to the cold anymore.

Phil didn’t reply. In fact, he didn’t react at all to indicate he’d heard Dan, instead staring at the side of the car.

“Phil?” Dan asked again, his voice getting ridiculously high. “Phil, you’re scaring me!”

When Phil still didn’t say anything, Dan’s body started moving on its own and before he knew it, he was at Phil’s side, shaking his arm.

“ _Phil!_ ” he exclaimed and finally, Phil broke out his trance, flinching as he tore his gaze away from the car and towards Dan, as if he hadn’t even noticed Dan coming up beside him.

“What the fuck, Phil!”

Phil looked properly scared, his eyes wide, as he stared at Dan. He opened his mouth as if to say something but nothing came out.

“What…” Dan trailed off as he tried to see what had freaked Phil out. There, on the side of the car, right next to the door, was a piece of paper pinned to the metal.

Dan stumbled backwards, grabbing Phil’s arm in the process so that he didn’t fall. He didn’t even notice Phil moving closer to him and grabbing a fistful of Dan’s t-shirt as he stared at the paper. There was a drawing on it that was making the blood freeze in Dan’s veins.

“Oh God,” he croaked out, not able to tear his gaze away despite the prickling on the back of his neck, making him want to turn around.

On the piece of paper were a few trees that looked a lot like they’d been drawn by a child and amidst those was a tall stick figure, which almost would’ve looked like the trees if it hadn’t been taller than them. It made Dan feel cold all over as he slowly turned towards Phil who was already staring at him. They both simultaneously turned to look at the forest behind them, darkness greeting them.

Well, fuck.


	2. Chapter 2

“Oh God, oh God,” Dan chanted, unconsciously shaking Phil’s arm the entire time.

Phil was uncharacteristically silent, looking back and forth between the drawing and Dan, as if that’d somehow provide him with an answer to their situation.

“This isn’t happening,” Dan whispered. “This is _not happening_.”

“Phil, this isn’t happening!” he exclaimed again when Phil still wouldn’t say anything. His voice was incredibly high-pitched and if he hadn’t been freaking out, he might’ve thought to lower his voice but at the moment he had other things to worry about.

“Y’know, I recall you saying that us staying here would result in us not ending up in Blair Witch,” Phil said suddenly, startling Dan.

“Wha-,” Dan started, “Okay, firstly, I did not say that and secondly, this isn’t Blair Witch, Phil,” Dan exclaimed, gesturing towards the drawing. “Do you not remember what we played earlier?”

“That’s… that’s not possible,” Phil whispered, staring at the drawing.

“ _I know!_ And yet we’re in the middle of nowhere, in a creepy forest with a creepy drawing of fucking Slenderman,” he hissed.

“ _Dan_!” Phil reprimanded him. “Don’t say his name!”

“We’re not in Harry Potter, for fuck’s sake. This isn’t _He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named_.”

“It’s a dream,” Phil decided then, turning towards Dan and away from the drawing.

“Well, if it’s a dream then how come we’re both having the same one?”

“You’re obviously only a creation of my imagination,” Phil explained.

“I’m _not_ -” Dan couldn’t see them coming to a consensual decision about this anytime soon, especially since he’d thought the same thing about Phil earlier. “Why don’t you stab me or something if you’re so sure that I’m not real then?”

“I’m not going to stab you,” Phil exclaimed indignantly.

“Why not?” Dan demanded to know. “Maybe then I’d wake up from this shitty place. Either way, I wouldn’t be in this fucking position!” He threw his hands up, wanting to just stalk away from Phil and this stupid situation they were in, but there was nowhere to go except into the darkness of the forest.

“Dan, we’re not-” Phil suddenly stopped mid-sentence, fear flashing over his face.

“Phil?” Dan whispered, stepping closer to him.

“Do you hear that?” Phil asked, looking around.

“Hear what?”

“Shh, just, listen,” Phil replied, and Dan obeyed. At first, he wasn’t sure what he was listening for exactly but then he could hear it. There were sounds, seemingly coming from everywhere around them. It sounded like the ominous music played in videos games or horror movies to create suspense and a scary atmosphere.

“Oh God,” Dan whispered again. He recognised this specific music very fast. “Oh God, Phil, what do we do?”

“I don’t- We- This-” Phil started several times, apparently not having an answer to Dan’s questions.

“This isn’t real,” Dan said. Maybe, if he said that enough times, he’d eventually believe it.

“We have three options,” Phil said, grasping Dan’s upper arms. His voice was shaking and Dan wasn’t sure he’d like what Phil had to say. “Whether this is real or not, we have to do _something_.”

Dan just nodded, not trusting his vocal chords to produce something audible.

“We can either stay here,” Dan vehemently shook his head, “or we venture into the forest,” Dan wasn’t happy about that option either, “or we play the game.”

Dan’s eyes widened as he stared at Phil, not sure if he’d heard correctly. “The game?” he asked, his voice shaking as much with fear as his body.

“Slender,” Phil whispered. Maybe, if this situation hadn’t been so precarious, he would’ve laughed about the way Phil had said the title of the game, but he could hear the ominous music getting louder and felt the need to just run and never look back.

“This is the worst idea you’ve ever had,” he said but nodded nonetheless. They both turned to look at the piece of paper, neither moving to pick it up.

“Should I…?” Phil trailed off and Dan nodded again, gesturing for Phil to go ahead.

Without stepping closer to the car, Phil picked up the drawing gingerly. It was slightly anticlimactic when nothing happened but Dan wasn’t going to complain.

“We need to move,” Phil then said, reaching for Dan’s hand and intertwining their fingers. He began to walk away, tugging Dan with him who followed easily. He still couldn’t really comprehend what was happening to them, couldn’t decide if this was a dream, or reality, or if it was something else entirely. Since he didn’t believe in supernatural creatures, he rather doubted that this was actually happening to them, especially because they seemed to be stuck in the universe of a freaking video game of all things.

He held the torch in front of them, lighting the way. The ground was covered with grass for the most part but when they’d walked in a random direction for a few minutes, they came upon some sort of path. They could’ve easily fit the car through there if they’d been able to get it there in the first place. Dan missed the kind of security the car had provided. He didn’t like having his back and side exposed like this at all, so he pressed himself as close to Phil as he could.

“Phil?” Dan asked quietly after a while. They hadn’t come across anything else but trees at this point and Dan was starting to worry that was all he was going to see for the rest of his life.

“Yeah?” Phil turned to look at him.

“What happens if we don’t collect all of the pages?” Dan whispered, not brave enough to say the words loudly.

Phil didn’t say anything, instead, his gaze strayed away from Dan again, looking straight ahead. Just when Dan thought Phil wouldn’t answer anymore, his hand squeezed Dan’s reassuringly and he started talking.

“I don’t think we want to find out.”

It wasn’t exactly what Dan had wanted to hear. In fact, Phil’s words made him even more anxious and uneasy even though that thought had crossed his mind as well. For some reason however, he’d thought that Phil would reassure him that everything would turn out okay.

Dan didn’t say anything in return, just kept on walking. He would’ve loved to make a joke of some sort to replace the constant fear clawing at his heart but couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

It wasn’t long before the torch’s light beam grazed what seemed to be a brick wall. Dan swung the torch around, illuminating two walls that were connected in a ninety degree angle. He looked towards Phil who was staring at the walls with wide eyes.

“This,” Phil said and gestured towards the wall, “isn’t possible.”

“I know,” Dan sighed, and this time he was the one tugging Phil forward. There was no drawing on this side of the wall, so they walked around the right side, only to find out that there were actually four walls, creating a cross. Even though this whole situation was ridiculously impossible anyway, Dan wondered what kind of function these brick walls had, standing in the middle of a forest like that.

When they passed the next wall, they finally discovered the drawing. It was pinned to the left side, big, bold letters gracing it. Dan wasn’t sure if he was glad they’d found it or not.

“Help me,” Dan read aloud as Phil grabbed the drawing. “Sounds about right,” he muttered as Phil dragged him away.

Phil actually snorted quietly at Dan’s comment and Dan smiled shortly, before he remembered the situation they were in. This really wasn’t the time to be funny.

It surprised him that the music didn’t get louder after picking up the second drawing but he supposed that’d happen soon enough. He’d rather it didn’t, anyway.

“Maybe nothing’s going to happen,” Phil said after a while of them tromping through the forest.

“What, you think this is a prank or something?” Dan said, rolling his eyes.

“No, I mean, I don’t know,” Phil shrugged. “But clearly, someone or something wants us to be scared, right?”

“Considering we’re in my literal worst nightmare, I’d say so,” Dan deadpanned.

“Well, maybe this is all that’s going to happen,” Phil said and turned towards him with a small smile on his lips.

Phil’s words should’ve reassured him but then everything went to shit a second later when Dan looked at Phil as well. He glimpsed a tiny something from the corner of his eyes and upon turning to see what had caught his attention, a high-pitched scream escaped him. He didn’t even realise when he started to run, dragging Phil with him.

The edge of Dan’s vision was fuzzy, like he’d hit his head a second ago, but he knew it was because fucking _Slenderman_ was trailing them. He couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that he was running away from a mythical force from a fucking creepypasta.

While trying not to trip over stray branches on the ground, he saw Phil throwing glances backwards, stumbling more than he was running.

“Don’t look at it!” Dan exclaimed, tugging harder on Phil’s hand. Had he not learned anything from the game, for fuck’s sake?

Phil actually did what Dan told him for once and focused on not running into anything. The torch’s beam was all over the place, not really helping them in this situation as Dan couldn’t keep his arm steady enough.

Breathing was getting more difficult by the second and Dan got stitches in his side. He was horribly unfit and a glance towards Phil told him he wasn’t doing much better. Still, they kept on running until Phil glanced backwards again and tugged at Dan’s hand, starting to slow down.

“I think… we… lost… him,” he uttered breathlessly.

Dan trusted Phil, he really did, but he still needed to hold the torch into the forest behind them to check if Phil had seen correctly. He knew that even if Slenderman - that still sounded incredibly wrong even in his mind - was gone, he still shouldn’t do that. It’d be best really if they turned off the torch entirely but Dan was positive he’d actually die of a heart attack then, thinking that every dark spot would be Slenderman or another supernatural creature.

“Yeah,” he said to Phil, who bit his bottom lip as if he was about to cry.

“It’s okay.” This time it was Dan doing the reassuring although he didn’t even believe it himself. This was so far from okay.

His thumb created patterns on Phil’s hand, trying to calm Phil down and probably failing.

“We need to keep moving,” he said gently and waited for Phil to nod before they continued their way into the unknown.

Dan’s heart was still beating rapidly, returning to its normal state painfully slowly as they kept on walking. He vowed to himself to get fitter when they made it out of this alive and this time he actually meant it, not like he’d joked in his video.

“If this is a dream,” Phil suddenly said, startling Dan out of his thoughts, “couldn’t we, like, dream up murderous rabbits or something?”

“What, you think evil murder rabbits are going to stop Slenderman?” Dan scoffed.

Phil shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s worth a try, isn’t it?”

“Be my guest,” Dan said, waving the torch around. He could see Phil closing his eyes and let go of his hand, slinging his arm around Phil’s waist instead, so he wouldn’t stumble over the next branch on the ground.

“Y’know, I’m sure you don’t actually need to close your eyes,” Dan said, grinning a bit to counteract the uneasiness clawing at his insides. He tried to banish the sight of Slenderman from his mind but didn’t quite manage it. He constantly felt the need to turn around and check if he was still following them, even though he knew that that action would not play out in their favour.

“It didn’t work, did it?” Phil asked after a few minutes, squinting out of one eye.

“Depends,” Dan answered. “Did you dream up quiet murder rabbits?”

“Not exactly,” Phil snorted. His hand had found its way under Dan’s t-shirt, resting just above his jeans. It was cold against Dan’s skin, making him a tiny bit uncomfortable. Well, he was uncomfortable anyway, the unclothed skin on his arms covered in goosebumps. At least Phil was lucky enough to be wearing a shirt with long arms.

“Well, I’ll let you know either way if I see rabbits with blood streaming down their fur sneaking up on us.”

“It might be too late then,” Phil said, grinning. “Those rabbits have a vicious streak a mile wide!”

“We’re not in a movie, Phil,” Dan replied, rolling his eyes but smiling nevertheless.

“We might be! Anything is possible!”

“I swear to God, if you start singing,” Dan threatened, a smile still gracing his lips. Phil had almost, _almost_ , managed to make him forget about the situation they were in.

Phil grinned at him, already opening his mouth, but then he stopped short, nearly making Dan stumble. He immediately saw what Phil had to have noticed.

“Giant elephant butt?” he tried to diffuse the suddenly tense atmosphere.

Phil forced a smile on his face. “Let’s head towards the crack?” he echoed his words from earlier.

Dan just nodded and started walking again, his steps accelerating the closer they came to the rock formation.

“Do you see a page?” Phil whispered, and Dan vigorously shook his head.

“No, let’s just walk around it quickly to see if there’s one somewhere,” Dan replied, keeping his voice low as well.

The sand surrounding the rocks crunched under their feet, the thereby created noises sounding way too loud despite the creepy background noises. Honestly, there was no way Slenderman was able to miss them.

“Let me just,” Phil mumbled, letting go of Dan and squeezing himself through the gap between two rocks.

“Phil!” Dan hissed, trying to keep a hold of Phil and failing. He watched as Phil turned around inside the circle of rocks, looking for a page. His face lit up when he’d obviously found it and a second later there was another drawing in his hand. Dan was able to make out the words _Leave me alone_ and rather strongly agreed with them. He wanted to shout them into Slenderman’s face. Well, not literally as he didn’t want to actually face him. It. Whatever.

As soon as Phil was at his side again, Dan reached for his hand, intertwining their fingers yet again. He never wanted to be separated from Phil another time, he didn’t think he’d be able to stay sane without him.

They quickly made their way into the forest again, away from the rocks and the more than ominous feeling they created. Having his back exposed to them did nothing to quell the lingering uneasiness inside Dan but he supposed that wouldn’t change once there were only trees behind them.

“Do you hear that?” Phil suddenly whispered, his grip on Dan’s hand getting steadily stronger.

“Hear what?” Dan asked, trying to blank out the sounds of the forest, the branches snapping under their feet, the noises of the crickets, the low music sending shivers down his spine.

“It sounds like stat-” Phil not only stopped in mid-sentence but also dead in his tracks, managing to yank Dan back by his hand.

“What-” Dan noticed Phil looking back and couldn’t stop himself fast enough from throwing a glance backwards as well.

He really wished he hadn’t. For the second time that night, he screamed. At least, he thought it was him. At the sight of an impossibly large man hiding behind a tree, watching them with a non-existent face, Dan’s body spurred into action. He began running, not even trying to illuminate the way with the torch now uselessly swinging back and forth in his hand. Phil was next to him, of course, he had his hand in a death grip, not planning on letting go anytime soon.

Dan was so focused on just running forwards and trying not to run straight into a tree that he didn’t even spare a glance at the ground, which turned out to be a mistake. He tripped over a branch, not able to build enough momentum to keep running.

One minute he was upright and the next he’d crashed to the ground, hard, his hands slipping away underneath him from where he’d tried to catch himself. His landed face first on the rough, sandy terrain.

Still dizzy from the fall, he felt hands on himself, yanking at his shirt and trying to get him to stand up. The edge of his vision was fuzzy, mixed with blackness crowding in and making him even more disoriented. He couldn’t get up.


	3. Chapter 3

“Get up, Dan!” someone yelled, and Dan belatedly recognised it to be Phil’s voice.

“Shit,” he cursed, trying to get his hands underneath him as the situation caught up to him.

“ _Dan!_ ”

He managed to scramble up onto all fours, pushing himself up off the ground as he threw a glance towards Phil, who wasn’t even looking at Dan, but instead somewhere behind them. His hands were still all over Dan’s t-shirt, tugging on it.

“Stop looking!” Dan screamed at him. He swayed unsteadily when he was on his feet again but then Phil had grabbed his hand anew and started dragging Dan with him.

They stumbled through the darkness of the forest, the trees closing in on them. Dan’s feet caught on stray branches several times but he always managed to stay upright, the fear of falling to his certain death keeping him going.

It was only when he felt he couldn’t breathe anymore, the stitches in his side bordering on nearly unbearably painful, that he noticed that the torch was gone. He must’ve dropped it in his shock while falling, so it was probably still laying on the ground amidst the tall grass.

“Shit, Phil,” he panted. They’d slowed down to a jog. “The torch.”

“We don’t need it,” Phil said decisively.

“Nevermind that I almost fell to my death earlier,” Dan grumbled, his eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness.

“Well, you did have the flashlight then,” Phil panted, and Dan could hear that he was only kidding but for some reason he didn’t feel better. He didn’t even have it within him to be cross with Phil. Instead, he gripped Phil’s hand tighter.

“We’re never going to get out of here,” Dan murmured, not aware he’d said it aloud.

“Dan,” Phil said urgently, his thumb rubbing soothing circles onto Dan’s hand. “Look at me, bear.”

Dan turned towards Phil. They’d returned to a normal pace, making it easier for Dan to look at Phil without running into a tree at the same time.

“We are getting out of here,” he said with so much conviction that Dan almost believed him. “We’re not going to die.”

“Jesus Phil, who said anything about dying?” Dan joked, trying to make himself feel better and lighten up the mood.

Phil smiled knowingly. He really knew Dan better than he gave him credit for. “I’m just including the extreme,” he shrugged. “Who knows, maybe those murder rabbits will still appear.”

Dan actually snorted at that. “At least it’ll be over quick then because there’s no way in hell I’ll be able to see them in the dark.”

“Small mercies,” Phil replied, bumping Dan’s shoulder with his, “as long as they only kill you.”

“I see,” Dan said mockingly, “that’s how much I mean to you.”

His eyes had adjusted to the darkness and he could see Phil grinning at him.

“I need to survive, Dan,” he said dramatically, waving around the drawings. “How else is my brilliant consciousness gonna be implanted into a robot?”

“Of course. Why else would you want to survive,” Dan muttered and rolled his eyes. A few stray leaves crunched dangerously loud under their feet, audible despite the music mixed with the chirping of the crickets.

“I just don’t like the idea of mortality,” Phil said, and Dan couldn’t help but agree silently. “I’m going to live until technology has advanced far enough to make a robot out of me.”

“What would you even do as a robot? All of your friends would die eventually,” Dan replied, deciding to delve into Phil’s imaginary scenario.

“I’d find a way to save their consciousness so they’d still exist in my mind.”

“Of course you would,” Dan sighed.

“I wouldn’t even have to leave the house anymore! Everyone would always be with me.”

“So you’d want your friends watch you going to the toilet,” Dan laughed.

“No!” Phil exclaimed. “Robotic body, remember? I wouldn’t even _need_ to go to the toilet anymore.”

“Sure, whatever,” Dan grinned.

They fell into comfortable silence. The forest didn’t seem as intimidating anymore, now that it had been a while since Slenderman had appeared. To be honest, the moments where Dan had caught glimpses of him now felt like dreams. He wasn’t sure what of it had actually happened and what had been part of his imagination. Was all of this really happening?

“Better?” Phil suddenly whispered.

“Yeah,” Dan replied quietly, leaning towards Phil and pressing a kiss to his cheek. They weren’t normally this affectionate, like holding hands for an extensive period of time or kissing each other on the cheek. Well, that wasn’t quite true. They were affectionate towards each other but usually never all that much at once. Most of the time, they shared short pecks on the lips or soft touches to the shoulder or other various body parts in passing, but all of that happened in the comfort of their home, where they could be as open as nowhere else with their affections. They’d got so used to suppressing the need to constantly touch the other in public that they’d found other ways to show their love for each other, even when no one else was watching, like Dan making Phil coffee in the morning, or buying lactose free milk for him when they only had normal milk and Phil was in desperate need of a bowl of cereal, or when Phil pried Dan away from his laptop or phone and read to him in bed, or making him a hot chocolate and listening to Dan droning on about the inevitability of death and the meaninglessness of their existences.

“Uh, Dan,” Phil pulled him from his revery. He’d started picturing him and Phil cuddling on the sofa, the image creating a calming feeling in his stomach.

“Yeah?”

“Is that…” Phil trailed off, his hand pointing towards something on Dan’s left side.

“What… oh,” Dan stuttered. All feelings of calmness were gone in an instant as he saw what Phil was pointing at.

“That’s…,” Dan said, not being able to find the right words to describe what he was feeling. Heck, he didn’t even _know_ what he was feeling in the first place.

Phil didn’t reply, just started walking in that direction, dragging Dan with him. Together they took step after step towards the dingy one-storey building hidden behind even more trees.

“Should we,” Dan started, not sure what exactly he was asking. “Isn’t this, like, the worst idea ever?”

Dan could feel Phil stare at him from the side but he didn’t want to look at him. If there was even a trace of fear on Phil’s face, Dan would probably shit his pants. He needed Phil to be strong for the both of them.

“It’s going to be fine,” Phil said, not sounding very sure of his own words. “We’ll go in, find the page and be gone so fast you won’t even realise we were in the house in the first place.”

“Sure, and while we’re at it, we might as well leave a trail of breadcrumbs,” Dan said dryly. “Because that’s how smooth this is going to go.”

“It’s going to be okay,” Phil replied, not adding anything else. He was probably having identical thoughts to Dan’s.

The house was where they’d died in the game, who was to say the same thing wouldn’t happen now?

The closer they came to the house, the more anxious Dan felt. He wanted to turn around and just run and never look back. He’d take anything over this, anything to escape this situation.

“If I didn’t know that this is Slender, I’d say we were in Blair Witch,” Dan muttered. They’d almost reached the entrance of the red brick building.

“I’m not sure which one’d be better,” Phil said, and Dan knew he was only saying that to get him to compare the two in his mind and therefore distract himself from what they were about to do. It worked though, so Dan wasn’t going to complain.

“Well, considering we don’t even know for sure what the Blair Witch is exactly, apart from some supernatural creature of some sort, obviously, I’d say Slenderman. At least, with him you know what to expect, well, sort of,” he said as they stepped into the house. He was the one unconsciously steering them to the left in the narrow corridor. It was difficult to see with the lack of moonlight but Dan was positive that they wouldn’t overlook the page. “I mean, you kind of have a chance at survival by not looking at him and simply finding the eight pages. The Blair Witch doesn’t give you a target or anything, it just slowly drives you crazy until you most likely die. And even that isn’t set in stone. They didn’t actually show if the people died at the end.”

They turned right at the end of the corridor, another longer and also tiled hallway appearing in front of them. Their footsteps echoed loudly in the small space and Dan’s voice wasn’t quiet either but he kept on talking. He knew that if he stopped, he’d be even more aware of where they were. He’d probably have a heart attack.

“Y’know, we should watch the second part, the one that was released recently. Then we’d know what happened to those guys from the first movie. Maybe they did die, or they didn’t and are still wandering through the woods, trying to find a way out.”

“Yeah, we should do that,” Phil murmured. His hand was holding onto Dan’s painfully tight.

“Right,” Dan replied absentmindedly. “First activity once we get out of here.”

He went to add more but then the hallway turned to the left and they stepped into a room. It was completely empty and tiled like all of the corridors they’d seen so far. Dan immediately spotted the page that was pinned to the wall on their left.

“Page, page, page,” he chanted and pulled Phil forwards.

Phil plucked the drawing off the tiles, the paper crinkling under his strong grip. Apart from a small drawing of Slenderman there was only writing on the page. _Don’t look… or it takes you._

Dan certainly didn’t want that to happen. He swivelled around and hurried out of the room dragging Phil with him, who wasn’t complaining even though he’d stumbled from Dan’s sudden movements. Neither of them were talking now, fear clawing at their throats, making it impossible to utter words.

They were back in the first corridor, and only had to turn right to be outside again. Dan’s whole body tensed and he tried not to look left, he really did, but he couldn’t help it. He needed to know if Slenderman was behind them or not.

Fortunately for him, he wasn’t. The long corridor was completely empty, just like the exit they stepped out of. Dan was purposefully half-jogging towards the forest again when a tug on his hand stopped him.

“We should walk around the house,” Phil said, looking apologetic.

“Are you _crazy_?” Dan exclaimed. “I’m not going back there!”

“There might be another page there, Dan,” Phil replied calmly.

“We’re not going back into the house!” Dan just said in lieu of agreeing with Phil. He really wished Phil wasn’t right but there could be a drawing there and they needed to check everywhere. They couldn’t afford to miss one.

At Dan’s request they circled the building with a generous gap between them and the walls. Due to the moonlight they could still clearly see if there was a page or not but so far they hadn’t discovered one. As they came to the front of the building - at least Dan thought it to be the front - they came across a huge space occupied by what seemed to be gas tanks of some sort. Dan didn’t like how big they were, Slenderman could easily hide behind one of them and literally scare them to death out of nowhere.

“Oh God,” Dan whispered, not aware that he’d said the words out loud.

“Yeah,” Phil murmured, knowing exactly what Dan was thinking.

The stepped between the first row of tanks, keeping an eye out for a drawing while simultaneously watching out for Slenderman lurking behind one of the containers.

“Please,” Dan whispered urgently as they walked through the gap between two tanks, the last row of containers in front of them. They’d have to walk around all of them individually to see if there was a page or not and Dan could basically _feel_ Slenderman creeping up to them.

“There _needs_ to be a page here,” he added desperately when they’d emerged on the other side of the three rows, not having found a page. He didn’t want to stay here much longer.

“There!” Phil suddenly exclaimed, dragging Dan with him between two tanks where he grabbed a page off one of them.

“Thank God,” Dan said and saw Phil smiling at him from the corner of his eye. “Let’s get the fuck away from here.”

Five pages down and three to go.

There was no way in hell they were going to survive this.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to everyone who's read and commented the story so far! It really means a lot to hear that people enjoy reading this fic :)

The cold had started getting to Dan a few minutes ago. Phil was keeping his left hand warm at least, but since he was wearing a t-shirt in the middle of the night in a forest, the rest of his body was gradually cooling down, making him shiver uncontrollably. When he looked over towards Phil, he could see that he wasn’t doing much better, despite his jumper. He dropped Phil’s hand - Phil immediately turning towards him with a worried expression - and let his his hand slip underneath Phil’s shirt, pulling him closer. Phil’s hand automatically settled on Dan’s waist. It was a bit more difficult walking this close to each other but it was worth it for the warmth they now shared, even if Dan’s other side was still incredibly cold. If Slenderman didn’t get them, nature certainly would. They wouldn’t be able to survive long in this forest.

“Phil?”

Phil hummed, his hand stroking over the thin material of Dan’s t-shirt. 

“This isn’t real, is it?” he asked, not able to hide the tremor on his voice.

“I don’t know,” Phil said, keeping his gaze on the ground. He didn’t sound annoyed about Dan starting to question their situation again but kind of indifferent, like he was in deep thought.

“Does it matter?” he added after a while, startling Dan a bit with the suddenness of it. 

“Well, yeah,” Dan replied, “if this isn’t real and we die, we’re not really dead. If it is and we die, then that’s it.”

Phil nodded but didn’t say anything. Dan wasn’t sure if he was trying to hide how afraid he actually was or if he’d simply run out of words. He guessed that it was the former. Phil had always been the one more scared of death out of the both of them. Dan had made peace with the fact that he was inevitably going to die, no matter what he did, since he’d spent countless hours thinking about the meaninglessness of his existence and wondering about his place in the universe. Phil had avoided that topic however much he could though, trying not to think about death as the final destination. Dan didn’t blame him. Death was a scary prospect, one that most humans didn’t want to except.

Dan wanted to reassure Phil that it was  _ fine _ , that they wouldn’t die, that they would live happily ever after, but he didn’t want to lie and he didn’t know how else to comfort him, so he stayed quiet as well. 

It wasn’t long after that that they came upon another path winding in-between the trees, and after short consideration they decided to follow it. They were able to see more clearly what was in front of them now, due to the lack of treetops above them. It made Dan feel more exposed though and he wasn’t sure if he was happy with that. Before he could voice his thoughts, however, a part of a concrete construction appeared in front of them. It took Dan approximately two seconds to work out where the path had taken them.

“Christ,” he muttered, unconsciously pulling Phil closer. 

“Slendy tube?” Phil joked, and Dan wouldn’t have been able to put into words how relieved he was upon hearing Phil’s voice again.

“IHOP sounds infinitely better right now,” Dan said, remembering what they’d talked about earlier. 

“We should make pancakes again,” Phil replied. He was smiling but looked sad at the same time.

“We will,” Dan said, not sure at all if they’d ever get the chance to stand in their own kitchen again. It was the right thing to say though, when Phil looked at him, a grateful expression on his features. Dan smiled back at him, trying to convey confidence in his gaze. 

As if they’d both had the same thought, they avoided the entrance of the concrete tube and walked along the side of it, keeping an eye out for a drawing. Of course they didn’t find one. It would’ve been too easy if they had.

Dan stopped Phil at the end of the side, right at the edge of the entrance. 

“Should we walk along the other side first or go in?” he asked, hoping that Phil would choose the latter.

“We could throw a quick glance in there and go in if he isn’t there?” Phil asked back. 

Dan wanted to say no but nodded anyway. They needed to find the page. There was no point in half-assing it, considering they would probably die if they didn’t manage to collect all of them.

They stepped forwards, the entrance coming into view, and both looked to the left. 

Dan sighed upon the sight of the empty tunnel, fog dancing through it but not obscuring the view of the other side. It wasn’t until Phil prompted him to walk forwards that Dan realised he’d tensed and stopped. He tried to set one foot in front of the other without stumbling but at this point he was shivering even more violently, trickles of spine-chilling fear running down his spine.

Dan couldn’t even believe it when they arrived at the end of the tunnel unscathed. Unfortunately, they hadn’t found a page yet either. 

“There wasn’t a drawing in the game,” Dan realised all of a sudden, the words spilling out of his mouth without a conscious effort of speaking.

“Maybe we’re more lucky in this version,” Phil replied, sounding a tiny bit optimistic again.  

“Maybe,” Dan echoed, although he was thinking the opposite. He could hear the music getting louder and felt this urge to turn around again but tried to fight it. He wouldn’t give in, no matter what! Fuck freaking Slenderman, he couldn’t stop them from finding the next bloody drawing! 

Well,  _ technically  _ he could, but Dan rather wanted to think they stood a chance, otherwise they could give up already and embrace death.

They exited the tube, slowly rounding the corner, their steps getting quicker as soon as they realised Slenderman wasn’t waiting for them on the other side. Just when Dan thought they wouldn’t find a page here, Phil uttered a surprised sound, starting to walk even faster. 

“Thank God,” Dan sighed as Phil plucked the drawing off the wall. There was a face on it, well, the face consisted of a circle and two x where the eyes would normally be. Above and underneath it the writing said  _ Always watches, no eyes _ . 

Certainly true, Dan thought, as they turned around again. He tried not to think of the featureless face he’d seen that had branded itself into his memory as they walked towards the forest. Since they had no idea whatsoever where anything was, they didn’t bother talking about a direction they should take. They would hopefully stumble upon another two sites soon.

“Dan?”

“Yeah?” Dan could feel Phil’s gaze on him and tried even harder to look out for any stray branches in front of them so he wouldn’t bring them both to fall.

“Is this our fault?”

“What do you mean?” Dan asked confused. 

“I mean, did we bring this upon ourselves?” Phil said, and when Dan glanced up, Phil wasn’t looking at him anymore but at the ground instead.

“What?” Dan poked Phil’s side so that he would return his gaze but he kept stubbornly staring his feet. 

“I don’t know, maybe…,” Phil trailed off, still not looking at Dan. 

Dan pressed himself closer to Phil, trying to give him enough comfort so he’d speak his mind. Phil worried, just like everyone else, but he was always optimistic, attempting to mask whenever his mind was occupied by self-doubt. Therefore, it was even harder for him to voice his worries, even if it was in presence of Dan whom he shared everything with. 

“Maybe we haven’t been doing enough, or we’ve been doing too much, but not enough for the fans,” the words spilled out of Phil’s mouth like a waterfall, “I’m just- I mean, what if our videos get boring, or annoying, or I don’t know, repetitive, or what if-”

“Phil,” Dan said gently. He normally didn’t like interrupting Phil when he was saying what had been bothering him but he knew that this stemmed from Phil’s fear of not being good enough, of feeling the need to change to impress people. And it hurt Dan to listen to that. “Look at me, Phil.”

Phil looked up and towards Dan reluctantly. They’d slowed down but still kept on walking. 

“You’re never going to be not enough,” Dan said softly but firmly. “You’ve done so much for your fans, you’ve touched so many of them with your videos. And even if that wasn’t the case, you still had a massive impact on me. I wouldn’t be where I am today without you. You encouraged me to take chances, to live life to the fullest, to just be myself. You’re always going to be more than enough for me.”

His grip on Phil had tightened without him noticing but Phil didn’t complain. Dan could see tears shimmering in his eyes in the dim moonlight filtering through the treetops, but there was a smile gracing his lips as well.

“Thank you,” Phil murmured. This time it was him pressing a quick kiss to Dan’s cheek, the combined smell of his aftershave and deodorant lulling Dan into a sense of security. 

Dan smiled at him, trying to burn the expression on Phil’s face into his memory. Only Dan ever got to see the love his gaze conveyed and even though he’d seen it countless times so far, he still tried to remember every single moment. 

Of course, the peace couldn’t last forever, and the lingering silence they’d found themselves in by blocking out the music and all other sounds was slowly fading. Dan could clearly hear the music getting louder and he urged Phil to go faster. This was one of the moments he was pretty grateful for his long legs and the therefore big step he could make.  

With their fast pace, it didn’t take long for them to stumble upon a relatively small container standing in the middle of a clearing. The paint was peeling off the metal walls which were bare except for a barred window they didn’t even acknowledge as they walked around it. Right behind the container was a big truck, the end of it facing them. 

“Maybe there’s a key in this one,” Dan joked, but his voice didn’t sound light like it was supposed to come out. Instead, even he could hear it wavering. 

Phil didn’t reply, his hand tightening around a fistful of Dan’s shirt. 

“Fuck, where the fuck is the page?” Dan cursed as they rounded the car. “Why wouldn’t there be a page?”

He knew he was starting to sound hysterical again, his voice going high, but he couldn’t stop himself, much less so than the other times. What if they never found the remaining two pages? What if they were stuck in this constant state of horror, running away from a supernatural creature continually wanting to kill them? He couldn’t do that, he wouldn’t survive this. They  _ needed  _ to find the other two drawings!

“There isn’t a page,” Phil whispered. They came to an abrupt stop between the container and the car, neither quite knowing what to do now. They’d been continuously walking since they’d picked up the first page and the lack of resting time was slowly getting to them. Dan’s feet ached, now that the adrenaline had fully worn off, and he was shivering so violently, he was afraid his legs would stop cooperating as soon as he started walking again. 

“Oh God, Phil, what do we do?” Dan asked desperately. He turned towards Phil, biting his lips so hard he was drawing blood.

“We keep go-” Phil stopped all of a sudden, looking over Dan’s left shoulder. His eyes went wide and not a second passed before he’d stepped out of Dan’s embrace and grabbed his hand.

“ _ Run! _ ” 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry that this is late!!  
> I've been working on this since like 10pm and I finally managed to finish it. considering the late hour there's probs going to be some mistakes in this.  
> thank you to everyone who's enjoyed this story. I hope you'll like the last chapter and the ending :)  
> Happy Halloween (even though it isn't even halloween here anymore but I'm sure somewhere it still is the 31st)

“ _Run!_ ”

The word echoed in Dan’s mind as he picked up pace, the edge of his vision fuzzy, static noise edging in on him. He could feel that Slenderman was right behind them, ready to snatch up their lives but he didn’t dare turn around to check if he was right. Panic drove him to run faster, his sweaty hand barely holding onto Phil’s as they rushed forwards. He didn’t even look to the ground to avoid falling this time. He couldn’t think anything past _I don’t want to die_.

Suddenly, Phil’s hand was slipping out of his and then it was gone. Dan’s gaze immediately swivelled to the side where Phil had been seconds ago, only to find that he was nowhere in sight. Panic clawed at his throat as he stumbled over a branch, but he was able to catch himself at the last minute, pressing a hand to a nearby tree to keep himself upright.

He span around, static clouding his vision anew and he started running again, managing not to run into any trees. His eyes began watering as the realisation of what had just happened set in, the tears making it even more difficult for him to navigate in the darkness.

Oh God, he’d _lost Phil_. He’d actually lost Phil and now he was on his own, fleeing from something he had no chance of escaping. He was going to die.

He stumbled again, this time not able to stop himself from falling. It was like a déjà-vu as he hit the ground, the rough terrain grazing the skin on his hands. This was it. This was how he died. Sand in his mouth, his clothes drenched with sweat, alone in the woods, leaving Phil behind.

Dan braced for the inevitable, clenching his eyes shut. He didn’t want the last thing he saw when he died to be Slenderman. Instead he tried to conjure up happy thoughts but all that came to mind was Phil, and Dan couldn’t help but feel guilty for leaving him like this.

A few seconds passed and nothing happened. Dan was sure that if he opened his eyes, something terrible would appear in front of him, so he kept them shut, stubbornly fighting the urge to see what was happening. He became increasingly aware of the sounds around himself, the ever-present music, the chirping of the crickets, the slight wind rustling the leaves on the trees. There was no static though, the music wasn’t getting louder, every indication that Slenderman was getting closer was gone.

Dan tried to prepare himself for the worst, to be inevitably surprised by Slenderman, but when he opened his eyes all he saw was the grass swaying in the wind and all too familiar trees as he looked up.

There wasn’t anything attacking him, he was all alone. No Slenderman in sight.

His arms were shaking uncontrollably and it took him a few tries until he managed to get up. He reached out for a nearby tree since his legs were so wobbly he wasn’t sure they were able to support his full weight right now. His heart was still beating fast, the sweat on his hand stinging his grazed palms, but all he could think about was Phil.

How the hell had they managed to lose each other? And where was he now? How the fuck was Dan supposed to find him? He had no idea how big this forest was or where he was exactly. He didn’t have any light either, though he tried not to linger too long on that thought.

He needed to focus. What was the most rational thing to do in this situation? Walk in a certain direction and hope that he’d arrive somewhere while Slenderman wouldn’t catch him from behind?

_Fuck._

Dan clenched his eyes shut again for a few minutes. He couldn’t stand the sight of trees embedded in darkness, a prickling at the back of his neck making him afraid of what was behind him.

_Shit_ , he needed to keep moving. He needed to just get the fuck away from here.

Still shaking, he stumbled forwards, desperately trying to ignore the voice in his head telling him to turn around. He knew that Slenderman had stopped tailing him but…

Slenderman had stopped coming after him.

The thought kept repeating itself in Dan’s mind and he tried to shove it away, to disregard the reason behind it. He didn’t want it to be a possibility. He couldn’t _let_ it be a possibility. Because if Slenderman had stopped chasing him, there was only one other person that could’ve attracted his attention.

_Phil._

Phil, who was on his own as well. Who had all of the fucking drawings.

Before Dan knew what he was doing, he was running at full speed, his whole body protesting against the exuberance of exercise it wasn’t used to. He shouted Phil’s name, full well knowing that it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but surely Slenderman knew where he was already. There was no need to keep quiet. And anyway, maybe he could divert his attention away from Phil this way.

“Phil!” he screamed, desperation feeding into his voice as he stumbled again, this time over his own feet. He had difficulties breathing in enough air to keep running and shout Phil’s name at the same time, resulting in stiches in his side as he struggled forwards.

It felt like hours but had in reality probably been a few minutes when he almost ran straight forward into a massive metal cylinder construction. He hadn’t focused on what was in front of him but had instead looked to the side, desperately wishing Phil into existence next to him. He managed to avoid crashing into the construction head on and came to a stop beside it, urgently trying to suck enough air into his lungs so he wouldn’t pass out.

He’d never felt worse in his life, not even past P.E. lessons could compare to this and they’d been pure horror, making him want to puke afterwards. He was way past that stage now, ready to pass out but the thought of needing to find Phil kept him going. Taking deep breaths, he straightened up from having doubled over and turned towards the metal cylinder next to him. It looked to be a silo but Dan wasn’t sure and he honestly couldn’t care less. He walked around it, careful to keep his gaze on it and not look into the woods. He was sure that Slenderman still wasn’t trailing him but one could never be too cautious.

He immediately spotted the drawing that was pinned to the silo on eye level and he forcefully ripped it off, the page crinkling in his strong grip.

_Can’t run._

_Watch me_ , Dan thought and headed onto the path leading away from the silo, slowly starting to jog. He shouted Phil’s name at random intervals, always listening intently for an answer afterwards. He didn’t even want to think about what could’ve happened to Phil in the meantime, too afraid of the answer, so he just kept on running and following the path.

“Phil!” he shouted again, but just like the last few times there was no answer. He tried not to let the lack of response get to him. After all, Phil could’ve run into the complete opposite direction than he, causing them to enhance the distance between them with every step they made. The thought of the alternative made Dan feel sick and he shoved it from his mind, not believing that that case could be possible. No, Dan would know if anything happened to Phil, he was sure of that.

He shouted his name, again to no avail. His legs were starting to hurt so much that he had difficulty to keep running but he grit his teeth and ignored the pain as much as possible.

Suddenly, without any warning whatsoever, he was thrown to the side, his arm hitting the ground at an unfortunate angle, making pain shot through it. He yelled, not knowing what was happening, as he was pressed into the grass.

“Oh God, Dan,” he heard someone say, and then the weight was off him and he was able to roll onto his back. He hadn’t even noticed clenching his eyes shut but when he opened them, it was to the sight of Phil leaning over him. His face was red from exhaustion and there were drops of sweat rolling down his temples.

“Phil?” Dan whispered, not believing that he was actually in front of him.

Phil grasped his arm, the one he’d fallen on, and Dan sucked in a breath, trying to quell the scream that wanted to escape him.

“Shit,” Phil cursed, and Dan couldn’t help but bark out a short laugh at the unexpectedness of it.

“Don’t curse,” he said and tried to smile despite the pain in his arm. Judging from the expression on Phil’s face he must’ve only managed to grimace instead.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean t-”

“Phil,” Dan interrupted him as Phil grabbed his other arm and pulled him up. “It’s _fine_.”

Phil looked like he was about to protest, so he engulfed him in a hug, careful to keep his injured arm at his side so as to not hurt it more. He didn’t even care anymore that Slenderman was out to get them. All that mattered was that Phil was here with him.

“I thought-,” Phil mumbled into his shoulder, his arms slung tightly around Dan’s shoulders. “I was-”

Dan knew what Phil wanted to say but couldn’t put into words. Of course he knew. He’d thought and felt the exact same things.

He pulled away from Phil slightly so he was able to look at him properly. “I love you.”

“Don’t say that, Dan,” Phil said, panic audible in his voice. “We’re not going to die, there’s no need for this, for you-”  
“No, Phil, listen to me,” Dan interrupted him, not caring that the music got louder, rising to a crescendo. “I love you, okay. I don’t want to regret not having told you again.”

“Dan,” Phil whispered, and now he sounded like he was going to cry. “I love you, too. You know I do.”

They hugged again, this time Phil held on so tightly that it hurt a bit but Dan hugged him back with just as much desperation.

“We need to get going,” Phil said eventually, grabbing Dan’s left hand and squeezing it.

Dan just nodded and together they started following the path again. Dan wanted to ask what had happened to Phil, if Slenderman had chased him, but at the same time he just wanted to forget that they’d ever been apart, to just ignore the little voice in his head telling him that Phil could be dead right now, that he would’ve died without Dan getting to tell him again how much he loved him. And maybe that was cheesy and sounded like something out of a romantic film but Phil was more important to him than anything else and Dan wasn’t going to let anything get between them.

Then the wind rustled the pages clutched in Phil’s hand and Dan remembered the drawing he’d collected. “ _Fuck_ .”   
“What?” Phil asked immediately, worry evident in his eyes, “What’s wrong?”

“I lost the fucking page,” Dan said, angry at himself for letting them fall back. They could be searching for the last page now if it wasn’t for Dan having lost one.

“You found another page?”

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Dan replied jokingly, even though he wanted to do the complete opposite.  

“Sorry,” Phil said, probably automatically. “Do you know where you lost it?”

“Probably where you ran into me.” He tried to remember if he’d maybe lost if beforehand but was pretty sure it had been in his hand the entire time until he’d met Phil again.

“Let’s go back,” Phil said and, without waiting for Dan’s okay, turned them around. Dan didn’t even have time to protest that that was a very bad idea since Slenderman was probably somewhere behind them, before he faced the other way. Fortunately for him, Slenderman wasn’t exactly behind him, but Dan could’ve sworn that the music got louder all of a sudden. There was no static though, so Slenderman couldn’t be too near. At least not close enough to kill them in the next few minutes.

It didn’t take them long to go back the way they’d come, especially since they’d just followed the path. Finding the page however, was a different story. Neither of them could remember where exactly they’d run into each other, and every tree and stone looked exactly the same, making it even more difficult to recognise where they were.

“It should be here somewhere,” Dan said for about the third time already, but this time he was actually sure. Well, surer than the other times anyway.

“I don’t see anything,” Phil observed. He sounded tired but at least there was some optimism back in his voice.

“Then keep looking,” Dan muttered absentmindedly, scanning the grass-covered ground for the page. At least they still had the moonlight which made it easier to spot the drawing since it was quite bright. However, if they were at the completely wrong place, that wouldn’t help much anyway.

“I am,” Phil insisted.

Dan just squeezed Phil’s hand in answer, focusing on the search. It probably would’ve been easier if they’d just splitted up but Dan didn’t want to let Phil out of his sight for even one second and he certainly didn’t want to let go of him. If finding the bloody page would therefore take longer, he’d gladly sacrifice those extra minutes.

Just as that thought had crossed Dan’s mind, he felt a prickling on the back of his neck and could slowly but surely hear the music getting louder.

“Phil,” he whispered, tugging at his hand. He tried to keep his voice from wavering.

Instead of answering Dan, Phil just hummed, not looking up from the ground. He seemed to not have picked up on Dan’s fear.

“Phil,” Dan said again with more emphasis this time, finally making Phil look at him.

“What is it?” he asked, his voice soft upon seeing the expression on Dan’s face.

“The music,” Dan replied, not needing to add anything else. Understanding dawned on Phil’s face and he almost turned around but stopped himself at the last second.

“We’ll find the page,” he said, sounding way more confident than Dan felt. Dan was guessing that Phil didn’t even feel as certain as he had sounded but that he was trying to be positive for Dan’s sake. Maybe he was even trying to trick himself into believing it. “Just keep looking,” he added.

Dan nodded hastily, pulling Phil forwards at a faster pace, his gaze sweeping across the ground so fast he was sure he’d miss the page even if it was directly in front of him.

“Dan!” Phil suddenly exclaimed and startled Dan, who yelped helplessly, his grip on Phil’s hand tightening momentarily. Phil either didn’t notice or didn’t mind as he didn’t even shoot him a look, but instead started dragging Dan to the left.

“What-” Dan started to say, trailing off when Phil picked up the page off the ground. He had no idea how Phil had spotted it, considering that it had been hidden in the high grass.

“Bloody tits,” Dan sighed. “Fucking finally.”

Phil turned to him with a smile on his face and hope started blossoming in Dan. They only needed one more page and then they would’ve beaten the game; they’d be free. Finding the last drawing couldn’t be that difficult, could it?

“Should we go back to the path?” Phil’s sudden question pulled Dan from his thoughts.

“Yeah, at least we’ll be able to see the ground there.”

“Right,” Phil replied. “No more falling, hopefully.”

Dan smiled at him, the action feeling kind of wrong but it was worth it for the look on Phil’s face as they made their way back to the path.

Dan couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the fact that they hadn’t seen Slender since he’d chased them earlier. It was unnerving to say the least. Surely Slenderman wouldn’t let them go this easily?

“How’s your arm?” Phil asked after a few moments of silence.

Dan experimentally flexed his fingers, pain immediately shooting up his arm, making him wince. “Okay, I guess,” he lied, not wanting Phil to worry too much.

“We’ll need to have it looked at as soon as we’re out of here,” Phil said, and Dan could hear that he’d not bought Dan’s lie. Phil knew him too well to know when he was lying.

“Yeah.”

“Are you…,” Dan trailed off, not quite knowing what he wanted to ask in the first place. “Are you okay?” he eventually settled on.

“I’m fine, Dan,” Phil said softly. He bumped their shoulders but Dan could tell that Phil wasn’t saying the truth. At least not entirely. He didn’t think either of them would be okay after surviving this. Maybe they’d be physically fine, but not emotionally. Dan for his part would certainly never sleep in a dark room again. And he wouldn’t ever step foot in a forest either for the rest of his life. He doubted Phil would either.  

“Is the music getting louder again?”

Dan strained his ears but concluded that the music was as loud as it had been just seconds before. He turned to Phil to tell him just that when he spotted something from the corner of his eye.

“ _Fuck_ ,” he cursed, automatically starting to run and making Phil stumble in the process. He caught up quickly though, not without turning around however.

“Don’t look at it!” Dan yelled at him, as static once again clouded his vision. They picked up speed, Dan’s legs starting to hurt more than they ever had before. He ignored the pain as much as he was able to, trying to focus on their goal: finding another page.

“Is it… still... behind… us?” Phil panted. He was holding onto Dan’s hand so tightly at this point that Dan was almost afraid he’d stop the circulation in it if he hadn’t been gripping Phil’s hand just as hard.

“I don’t know!” Dan exclaimed breathlessly. He wasn’t sure how much longer he was able to keep up this pace, considering he’d exhausted all of his energy already and was basically running on fumes at this point. He was almost ready to give up when he spotted something in the distance.

“Phil,” he managed to get out, not capable of saying a whole sentence. Phil seemed to understand anyway as he ran faster towards the massive tree that had come into view. It looked completely different to the trees they’d come across so far, making it obvious for them that this was another site where they’d be able to find a page.

They didn’t slow down as they reached the tree, causing Phil to crash into it with his shoulder as they tried to round it. He didn’t even utter a sound, just pushing himself away from the thick trunk and following Dan.

They’d almost rounded the tree, the static getting worse and worse, when Dan spotted the final page. He ripped it off the bark and thrust it towards Phil so he would have all of the drawings.

Nothing happened.

“Shit!” The curse word felt foreign in Phil’s voice but before Dan had time to react he was being dragged away again. Phil steered them towards the forest, probably in hopes of outrunning Slenderman.

Dan felt hopelessness rise in him, making him feel sick. They’d never outrun Slenderman. They’d never escape him. They’d never escape their fate, their certain deaths in this forest.

He was almost at the point where he couldn’t see anything, white and black spots dancing in front of his eyes, so he blindly followed Phil, hoping that he knew where he was going. Seconds later Dan collided face-first with what felt like a tree and his hand slipped out of Phil’s. The last thing he heard before the music hit its climax and everything went black, was the desperate call of his name.

 

*

 

Dan woke with a start, sitting upright in his bed, the sheets pooling around his waist. He was gasping for breath, his clothes drenched with sweat.

He felt disoriented for a second, not quite sure where he was, but then he noticed the subtle light falling through the not completely closed blinds and realised he was in his room. He looked around, seeing the lump next to him under the duvet, only the dark hair of the person laying next to him peeking out of it.

He couldn’t quite remember what he’d dreamed. The more he tried to grasp the last remnants of the dream, the more intangible it became. He was sure there’d been something with trees, and Phil and he running? But he wasn’t sure. The only thing he knew was that it’d been a nightmare, scaring him so much that he’d woken up from it. That hadn’t happened to him in a long time.

He laid back down and tried to get back to sleep but he was wide awake, despite it being far too early for him to be this alert, considering the late hour he’d gone to bed the night before. He decided to get up as he felt quite restless and didn’t want to wake Phil by turning one too many times.

He traipsed into the kitchen, his legs hurting with every step he took. He’d probably tensed his muscles during the nightmare, causing them to feel quite sore now. Maybe he should take a bath later to relax his muscles a bit. Or get Phil to give him a massage.

His throat was raw as well and he opened one of the cupboards, reaching for a glass to pour himself a glass of water, his arm feeling sore as he lifted it. As soon as his hand touched the cold material however, he yelped. He immediately drew his hand back and looked down at it.

“What the fuck,” he whispered, staring at his grazed palms. When had that happened?

He went through the mechanics of cleaning the wounds that looked as if there was some kind of sand in it. He had no recollecting of hurting himself like that and an uneasy feeling spread in his stomach as he looked at the wounds but he couldn’t quite pinpoint why he was feeling that way.

When Phil finally woke up an hour later, Dan showed him his palms but Phil was as clueless as Dan was regarding where they’d come from, so Dan put it off as one of those mysterious bruises he never knew he’d required in the first place.

It was much later that he was sitting in front of his macbook uploading the video for Spooky Week they’d filmed the day before. He didn’t know why but whenever he looked at the thumbnail, he felt like there was more to it, something that he was supposed to remember. And whenever he leaned closer towards the monitor, he caught a glimpse of something from the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look at it, there was nothing there. It was probably just his imagination running wild. After all, he’d always been scared of the supernatural.


	6. Alternative Ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> look, it's the alternative ending no one asked for...............
> 
> honestly, I don't even know why I wrote this. For some reason I just really wanted to write sth horror-y. So I wrote this instead of writing a Christmas fic
> 
> anyway, I guess this ending is a bit more open than the other one, and also a bit harder on the characters (sorry)
> 
> oh yeah, and this takes place after D&P find the last page and Dan gets knocked out by running face first into a tree (sorry Dan)

Dan woke up with his head pounding. Pain shot through his temples and as soon as he opened his eyes, there was a bright light, making the pain even worse and causing him to squeeze his eyes shut tightly again. After a few minutes of willing the pain to go down at least a little bit, he realised that he was lying on his back. The ground underneath him wasn’t uncomfortably hard but it wasn't pleasant either. He definitely wasn’t in his bed. Unless the mattress had turned from a bed of feathers to a bed of tiny rocks. 

Had he fallen out of his bed and hit his head on the bedside table? At least that would explain the horrible pain and why his back was aching so much.

He tried to open his eyes again just a tiny bit to assess his situation, but the light was still blindingly bright. He raised his arm to block out at least a bit of it but immediately a sharp pain shot up to his shoulder. 

“Fuck,” he cursed, biting his lip in order not to start crying. He must’ve landed on his arm when he’d fallen. And quite unfortunate too if the level of pain was anything to go by. 

Gingerly, he tried lifting his other arm which luckily seemed to be okay. After a few minutes of shielding his eyes from the sun, his eyesight had adjusted to the brightness and he was able to lift himself up on his uninjured arm and look around. His breath caught at the sight of what was before him. 

There were trees everywhere, amidst grass on sandy ground and a path a few metres away from him. Despite the fact that he apparently was in the middle of a forest, there were no sounds. No bird-chirping, no rustling of the leaves in the wind, nothing. 

It seemed like he was completely and utterly alone. 

He could feel panic clawing its way up inside of him and he tried to push it down, to fight against it so he could at least get a grasp of his situation before he freaked out. 

There was no indication of where he was, apart from the trees signifying that he was most probably in a forest somewhere, one which he’d never been to before. He couldn’t even  _ remember  _ the last time he’d been properly outside - not taking into account when he’d had to go out to buy more cereal after Phil had eaten all of his,  _ again  _ \- nevermind when he’d been to a freaking forest!

And, speaking of Phil, hadn’t they slept in the same bed last night? But if he couldn’t even remember how in hell he’d ended up in a forest of all places, then how would he know if what he remembered last night to have actually been last night? 

With his uninjured hand Dan automatically reached for his phone, which he normally stored in the right front pocket of his jeans, but before he’d even touched the fabric of his trousers, he’d already noticed that the familiar weight of it was missing. At least now he knew that he hadn’t ventured into the wilderness on purpose since he’d never leave his house without his beloved iPhone. 

He decided to get up and see if he could find a clue about his whereabouts. There needed to be a sign somewhere, he couldn’t be far from the flat after all.

Well, except if he’d been literally thrown into  _ The Blair Witch Project _ or if this was an extremely detailed dream. Both of those options didn’t sound particularly appealing if Dan was to be honest. He’d rather not get eaten by any kind of supernatural creature, be it dreamt up or not. 

Suddenly, there was the distant call of his name and an image flashed before Dan’s eyes, barely there before it was gone again. It disoriented him and he had to close his eyes shortly as he leant against one of the trees. The only thing Dan had been able to perceive from it was darkness and a disconcerting feeling of blind panic. 

After a short moment, the reality of what had just happened sunk in and Dan opened his eyes wide, looking around. Someone was here that knew Dan and was calling his name.

Or he really was in a horror movie and whatever supernatural force wanted to kill him was trying to lure him towards it. Should he walk away from the voice then or not? 

Before he could come to a conclusion, he heard his name being called again. This time it was considerably nearer and Dan instantly recognised the voice of the person. 

_ Phil. _

He only hesitated a short moment before he started jogging in the direction the voice had come from. The muscles in his legs immediately protested against the exercise but he ignored it as best as he could, even though he wondered why in God’s name his entire body hurt like he’d run a marathon. 

He almost ran head first into a tree as another scene appeared before his eyes. This time, it lasted considerably longer as images of all-consuming darkness and a blurry tall figure amidst a sea of trees popped up in his mind. His heartbeat sped up and he could feel his palms starting to sweat. He had no idea whatsoever what those images were or where they were coming from but trees and darkness? Those two things were scary enough on their own, nevermind combined. 

As soon as he’d opened his eyes again, he could hear his name once more, even closer now, so Dan picked up pace again. He just hoped that he wasn’t doing the exact thing he berated horror movie characters for - running towards the danger instead of away from it. 

Oh well, at least then it’d be over quicker.

Phil called his name again, or at least someone was shouting his name with Phil’s voice. Either way, Dan knew that he should be able to see Phil any minute now, but he wasn’t quite sure which direction he would come from exactly. 

Suddenly, and quite relievingly for Dan,  Phil emerged from between the trees and Dan was able to see the exact moment Phil spotted him and ran even faster towards him. Even from this distance Dan could see the fear in Phil’s demeanour, the way his hands were balled into fists, the dirty marks on his jeans that looked like he’d fallen onto the sandy ground one or two times. 

Seeing Phil caused some kind of chain reaction; one moment, Dan was running towards Phil, unconsciously having picked up pace, the next he was on the ground, panic clawing its way up his throat and unshed tears burning in his eyes. It was dark, the moonlight illuminating the patches on the ground void of trees and there was a bass noise coming from somewhere, pressing into his chest with its force and making Dan want to run until he couldn’t breathe anymore. 

He wanted to scream but no noise came out of his mouth. Instead, he spluttered as he inhaled sand and tried to lift himself up on his uninjured arm. He actually managed to get halfway up as a tall creature, taller than Dan’s impressive 6’3’’ and clad in a black suit, appeared before him. It took Dan only the fraction of a second to realise that the creature didn’t have a face as it stared down at him, static clouding Dan’s vision and unbearable pain pressing on his temples. 

Suddenly, the pain was gone and Dan gasped as his eyes flew open, the bright daylight being blocked by the person in front of him.

Phil, Phil, Phil. 

Phil was holding him tightly, almost painfully, as he whispered Dan’s name all over again, and Dan remembered.

He remembered what had happened the night before - well, presumably, he wasn’t sure if the concept of time was different in the Slender universe - how they’d woken up in the forest and had searched for all the different pages. And he recalled how they’d found all of the drawings but how that hadn’t changed a thing. They’d still run and run, until… well, until Dan had knocked himself out, if he remembered correctly.

But how come that they were still in the game? How come that it was daylight? How was it possible to escape? Or was that impossible?

“Phil,” Dan breathed, lifting his left arm and brushing Phil’s fringe out of his eyes. 

“This is...” Phil trailed off, squeezing his eyes shut for a short moment before focusing on Dan again.

“I know,” Dan murmured. He understood that Phil wasn’t able to put into words everything that had happened to them, same as Dan. Neither of them knew what was happening or how they could escape this nightmare they’d found themselves in. 

Instead of saying anything else, Phil just hugged Dan again, desperation seeping into the embrace as they clung to each other tightly. No matter what happened now, at least they still had each other. 

Dan was just about to say something along those lines, to reassure him or Phil, he wasn’t quite sure, as something changed. At first, he couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was, but as Phil looked at him, fear again evident in his gaze, Dan could hear it.

“The music.”

Dan could feel it in his bones, moving through his body, and he knew with a certainty that had come out of nowhere that this nightmare would never end. They could finish this game a hundred times and they would still end up here, each time even more hurt, more tired, at their breaking point. 

And Slenderman would be waiting for that.

**Author's Note:**

> comments are always appreciated
> 
> come talk to me on [ tumblr ](https://tsingadark.tumblr.com)


End file.
